Leon Jouhaux

Leon Jouhaux (1 July 1879-28 April 1954) was a French trade union leader.

Biography
Leon Jouhaux was born in Pantin, France in 1879, and he became General Secretary of the CGT trade union in 1909. A pragmatic general secretary, he resisted attempts to bring the union under increasing communist influence. In protest against the Munich Agreement, he unsuccessfully called a general strike. He was imprisoned in Vichy France from 1941 to 1943 and in Nazi Germany from 1943 to 1945, being interned at the Buchenwald concentration camp. In opposition to the communist majority in the CGT after the war, he founded the socialist Workers' Force in 1947, which contributed to the marginalization of trade unions in French politics and society from 1945. He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1951, and he died three years later.